


the days of theft

by twistedingenue



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Awesome Jane Foster, F/M, Gen, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Thor Is Not Stupid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-14
Updated: 2014-04-27
Packaged: 2018-01-19 08:04:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1461916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twistedingenue/pseuds/twistedingenue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Jane. Stop, " Darcy's voice is icy hard, "This isn't NSF funding, this is SHIELD and probably why they don't return my phone calls and why the database isn't working."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Me:Imagine Jane foster watching cspan coverage about shield hearings and realizing how much of her data came from them.  
> Beths: That would be beautiful
> 
> You can, as always, find me at [my tumblr](http://twistedingenue.tumblr.com)

Her dedicated connection to the SHIELD and SWORD databases won't connect again. It cut out about a day ago, and it's been intermittent ever since, and it's really slowing down Jane's work. She looks at the clock and cannot remember if it's 4 am or 4 pm, and her office is dark anyways -- she forgot to turn on the lights again. There are three cups of cold coffee next to her, Darcy's doing, probably. Maybe Thor's. He's taken to quiet amusement whenever she goes on a data exploration bender like this, and taking turns with Darcy to sit with her and be ignored.

Jane wipes her eyes and turns her chair around to stand up and leave the office. In the living area, Darcy's watching of all things C-Span, which Jane didn't know you could pick up in London, but Darcy frequently does the impossible for very silly things.

Also, it is apparently 4 pm, if she's remembering time zone conversions correctly.

"Jane, you should watch this."

"No, Jane doesn't. Jane should go to sleep," she responds, debating between a cup of coffee and a bottle of water. One is probably better for her, but the other is coffee. "You think while I take a few hours, you can look at our database connections? I've been having a horrible time with them."

"Jane," Darcy says insistent, "You need to watch this."

"Darcy, I really don't have time to have a discussion about some dinky bill that's going through the senate, even if it is about science funding. I don't get funding anyways, funding is for people who --"

"Jane. Stop, " Darcy's voice is icy hard, "This isn't NSF funding, this is SHIELD and probably why they don't return my phone calls and why the database isn't working."

Jane grabs the water and Darcy turns up the television, and Jane forgets to drink her water. Her jaw sets tight and something inside her breaks as she watches Natasha Romanov calmly answer questions about the depth of HYDRA's intertwining of SHIELD.

She needs to sit down, and somehow she finds the couch cushions and listens with growing despair about how SHIELD has disbanded, that it should not have been trusted. Jane wonders just how deep the rot goes and then, "Oh god. The data." 

Did they inadvertently contribute? In exchange for the access to satellite data they've shared at least some of their findings that more or less relate to greater universe they've recently entered. It's not been quite an equal exchange, but that was a condition of the access, of the meager bit of funding that Jane's received over the past two years, all that data.

All that now useless data. Because it could be worse than just providing information, because now that entire database is circumspect at best. They could have been cooking the data, providing false information. Two years of work, all down the shit because now she can't trust any of it. 

"Two years of research," Jane says out loud, still not wanting to believe it, "Two years…." she will not cry over this, not at all. This is not the worst thing ever. She still knows she's right, that new data, data she collects from new sources -- where is she going to get the funding now? will show she's right and she's not a kook that happened to be right once.

She'll find the funding, she's going to have to go back to the states, crawl back to Culver and get her position back or something. Selvig and her father's name still has some pull. Jane will work through this, her work will come out stronger.

"Where's Thor?" Jane asks.

"Sleeping. He kept an eye on you for most of the morning."

"Erik?"

"Therapy," Darcy says with a little relief in her voice.

"Ian?"

Now Darcy is quiet.

"Darce?"

"I don't know. He left yesterday and hasn't come back. I'm sure it's nothing," Darcy tries to shrug it away, but it's obviously haunting her. Darcy turns her phone over in her hands, and pales, "I think we need to get out of here, Jane. Can you go wake up the sleeping giant?"

If HYDRA is now going to be out in the open, then they've become a target. They've got intimate and extensive cutting edge research on bridges between points in the universe. If they weren't targets because of Thor already.

Thor sleeps in her - their - room sprawled out on the bed, golden against the very floral and cheap sheets she bought when she borrowed the flat from her mother and had an adverse reaction to sleeping in her bed on her sheets. He sleeps soundly, usually, but always knows when Jane enters the room. 

There are times that Jane is so damn blindsighted by the sheer immensity that is Thor that she kind of forgets anything else, but this isn't one of those times.

She slips in next to him, his arms immediately pulling her into him, holding her close and warm. And yes, this is what she wants to enjoy for just a moment before she has to refocus and take action.

"What troubles you?" Thor says, because of all things, he can read her like a book. Just the way she holds her shoulders or breathes differently. If his senses weren't keened for battled, he'd be a skilled researcher, ready to observe even the smallest detail and change. If he only had the inclination! But Thor is who he is, and he challenges her enough with the wide field of knowledge he does have.

"SHIELD is not what it seemed to be," she starts, and Thor listens intently as she explains what she's just watched on TV.

"There are good men and fine warriors held within horrors, and men of profound darkness who stand in the light, we will have to be wary of our trust, but we will find our true allies, my love." Thor says soft and focused, his hands holding her steady at the hips. It's calming and protective, and she fits against him like a missing and cherished part of his own body. "You should sleep, but I do not believe that is in your nature now," he teases, "Not until we have solved this problem."

"No, probably not," she concedes.

"Then let us begin," Thor says as he stands up and puts on a shirt to Jane's dismay, and probably Darcy's too. She's not going to worry about Ian's disappearance, not yet, not without more evidence than just a bad feeling.

Thor pours her a cup of coffee, and Darcy's on her phone, bobbing her head to the hold music. "I have an idea," she says excitingly, "I think I know of a few people we can maybe trust. I just have to get them to answe-- hey, hi. My name is Darcy Lewis and I've got the God of Thunder in my boss's kitchen, so can I speak to someone who works a few dozen floors?"

Leave it to Darcy to jump to conclusions, act quickly, and in the right direction. Erik will be back soon, Thor can protect them, and Jane will rebuild her data. The world can fall to pieces, as it always seems to be lately, but Jane has a team that is beyond compare. They will build and survive.


	2. Chapter 2

Darcy walks into her bedroom as if Jane is not actually half dressed with a pillow over her head. Truth be told, it's not the first time Darcy has walked in like this, or found Jane in this position. Granted, she's in a generally better mood these days and she's gotten used to Darcy's lack of societal norms when it comes to things like privacy or boundaries.  
   
"Jane," she says, and doesn't react a wink when Jane turns over, hugging the pillow to her chest, "I've got Pepper Potts on the line for you and wow, that was not a sentence I ever thought I'd be able to say. I am never washing these ears again."  
   
Jane regularly tunes out about eighty percent of the words that Darcy says, because the woman requires a sort of speed listening, but she does hear Pepper Potts and tries not to groan. She's not completely on board with this plan to move to New York in the next couple of days, and Ms Potts is a lovely woman, but Jane really doesn't need the same arguments rehashed again.  
   
Jane would rather return to Culver. They've really improved their security, and there's at least some darkness there. Even London was just a holdover, a working vacation of sorts. Okay, it was really a place with free rent to have a slow-burning mental breakdown, and you know what, it's a still a free rent place to have this new mental breakdown.  
   
Who knows what HYDRA will do with her work.  
   
"You talk to her," Jane turns back to face the mattress.  
   
Darcy huffs and stares, Jane can feel it, but says, "I'm sorry Ms Potts, Doctor Foster isn't available right now, but I have time to talk about the arrangements."  
   
And well, that's Darcy too. Eighty-five percent irreverent, fifteen percent ruthless and efficient.  
   
Jane tries to map out her own argument and falls asleep somewhere between how accessible Culver is and how you can still see the stars there.  
   
It's an argument doomed to failure but that's never stopped her before. Jane puts a shirt on and goes to the kitchen, following the smell of bacon cooking. Thor's attempts to bring peace to the household tend to involve food. Jane has no idea how Thor learned to cook -- his stories of home speak of liberal amounts of servants, even when campaigning in battle. But she’s glad he did; Darcy’s not great at breakfast and Jane barely remembers what time it is. Cereal is an anytime food. 

Erik looks up from his laptop, quiet and subdued. He’s been the most avid supporter of going to Stark. SHIELD didn’t do a damn thing to try to help him after Loki. Stark didn’t either, but Erik held SHIELD responsible more than any of the Avengers.

“You talk to her, I’m done trying,” Darcy says to Thor, holding her hand against the receiver of her phone, “We need to leave like, yesterday. I need to get our details to Potts.”

Thor holds up his hand and looks at Darcy expectantly, and once again Darcy turns on her heels and finds another room to have her conversation in. Thor puts a plate down in front of Jane, and motions for her to sit, and he does the same.

“Darcy is right, Jane,” Even Thor’s small smiles are bright and bring a little bit of relief to the rage in her body, “It’s not safe here. If young Ian was not who he appeared to be then it will not be long until trouble finds us.” Thor continues, and Jane falls a little inside. She’s been reviewing her documents. The data she hadn’t uploaded yet to SHIELD had been accessed before Ian left.

“I know,” Jane agrees. 

“I will do all that is in my power to protect you my dear Jane, but you must let me do so.”

“Why can’t I let you take care of us from Culver or New Mexico?” Jane says, and she doesn’t quite understand herself why she’s so adamant against this. She’s been working for, no wait, she was working with SHIELD, she didn’t owe a damn thing to them. But if she moves into the tower, well then, that’s it. That’s the end of this freedom.

She’ll owe Stark.

“I don’t need someone else lording themselves over my work. I don’t know Tony Stark. He might be offering us some great thing here, but he might also have his own intentions and I don’t know what those are.” Jane throws her weight into her voice, “I work better when I have control.”

“Jane, this isn’t just about your work or the data anymore,” Erik says, pushing his chair out and closing the laptop, “it’s all of us, we’re easier to keep safe together.” He stands up, “I have my own phone calls to make.” He’s resigned himself to following, instead of trailblazing and leader like Jane remembers of Erik. Oh sure, he bickers with Darcy, plays devils advocate for Jane just like always, but he’s taking a step back these days.

That scares Jane too.

“I do not believe that Tony Stark would abuse you or your work.” Thor says, “I did not spend much time with him before, but he seems a man that stands by his words.” Thor bobs his head a little, “If after a fashion. He’s a man of sacrifice.”

“Oh honey, you’ve known him but a minute,” Jane says, “And at his best. I can send you a google search of him at his worst for decades.”

“It is often the work of a few minutes that change a man forever,” Thor counters, “I cannot speak to what he offers you and your great undertaking, but I trust him that he would take your protection seriously.”

“They already have all my information, what are they going to come after, my equipment?” Jane scoffs in defense, “They can have it. They took it once, I can build it again.”

“They may have all of your work, Jane, but they do not have you. Do you expect that there are many that can understand what comes easily to you, much less what you struggle with?” Thor takes her hand into his, “The work you have done is quite advanced for you Midgardians, but it is you that is most valuable. HYDRA will not come after your equipment. They will come after you. Or they will come after Erik or Darcy to pressure you.” He tightens his grip, “I will be there for you, know this, I want to be at your side. But I am still just one person and Darcy is spirited.” The words are light, but she's learned to read what tense looks like on Asgardians.

Jane laughs, runs her her other hand through her hair, looks off in any direction that’s not Thor, but that’s very hard to do. Trust him to get to the heart of things. He takes up so much of her line of sight, “You trust Stark?”

“I trust him more than anyone not in this house. I trust the men and women that I fought beside to have good intentions and to look after what I cherish. I believe that he will honor your commitment to seeking knowledge, free of entanglement.”

Jane nods slowly, pokes at the bacon in front of her, picking up a slice and biting into it, “Darcy!” She yells, taking another bite. “How long will it take you to pack?”

Darcy scampers into the kitchen, “I totally told Pepper — I get to call her Pepper how cool is that? — that we can be ready in about 12 hours. Because it takes that long for your duct tape and rubber band contraptions to cool off enough to take apart and break down.”

“It should take 16,” Jane narrows her eyes.

“I started taking them offline hours ago,” Darcy sing-songs, “I didn’t want them on the uplink anymore. So boss-lady, do I text Pepper and start the countdown to the private jet to New York?” Darcy raises her eyebrows and her phone.

“Yes,” Jane raises her hand in capitulation, “Go tell Erik. Go pack.”

“Selvig! You better have pants on when I come in the lab this time!” Darcy yells, walking fast and her fingers flying over her touchscreen, “Or at least be wearing the boxers with the little Einstein heads. Those are cute.”

Stark’s not going to know what’s hit him when they walk through the doors.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't mean for there to be a second chapter, but it happened anyways. You can find me at [ my tumblr](twistedingenue.tumblr.com) swing by and say hi!


End file.
